An audio recording has emerged of a policeman in Ireland joking about rape with women protesters they had just arrested.

The women were arrested by the Gardaí (as police are referred to in Ireland) over their protest at a Shell Oil compound last Thursday (March 31st, 2011), near a Shell compound at Aughoose in the Republic of Ireland.

The police seized their video camera but inadvertently allowed the camera to continue recording in the squad car, as they travelled 20km to Belmullet Garda station.

The two women travelled in two other Garda cars in the same convoy. They have now released athe video and audio from the time they got arrested.

The captured recording starts with the women being arrested and the camera been taken by Gardaí. The discussion in the Garda car includes the Gardaí talking about threatening to rape one of the women in their custody and laughing.

Usually when they are being adversely affected by the actions of others.

Thus ‘handling protestors’ has meaning.

Control. Suppression of truth. Gain. Power.

For those with the eyes to see,and the heart to feel, it’s alll too easy to see how conditioning enables all of these, and is in fact neccessary when empathic relationships give way to Power relationships as the primary mode of any given Society, and of course to ‘survive’ is to adapt. Which defenceless children must do. As best they can.

1. There IS an Official Government level policy of intimidating protestors at Corrib, including the use of targetted violence by Gardiai and ‘contractors’, since about a year into the protests. Arrests lead to court cases. Court cases lead to evidence, serious questions and precedents being set …. oh, and publicity. The Publicity was what made the original order. So it’s not a case of a few bad apples… more like a rotten orchard.

2. I know from my own experience in Elite Irish Catholic Boarding Schools that jokes were made about sexual assaults. ….. and also that NOTHING was done to protect the chidlren, and EVERYTHING was done to protect the assailants. I know of Politicains, currently in Power, who have said that what they witnessed and experienced in those Elite Institutions ‘made them the men they are’ or ‘were character forming’. Abuse takes many forms, and the IMF deal is one of those forms….

3. A culture of abuse always tries to mitigated abuses perpetrated. Ireland, for all it’s tourist and Hollywood imagery is very much a culture of abuse and acceptance of abuse. Not that it’s unique in this respect. Some call our culture ‘the democracy of fear’. Every year in the Irish Republic HSE reports 12,000 cases of serious child abuse: there is NO mandatory reporting and so very few are passed on to the Civil Authorities…. we all know families where chidlren have been seriously abused and it’s all hush hush…..

4. Read Kenneth Doyles ‘Mother From Hell’ for a detailed portrayal of how Gardia protected his Mother – who was abusing him and his brother BIG TIME – and how the Gardia, HSE and Barristers intimidated, denied, manipulated Kenneth every step of the way to protect their Institutions.

5. Read ‘DEEP DECEPTION’ about the Pedophile rings operating within Irish Swimming Training all the way to the Olympic Swimmers… and how that too was ‘managed’ when it all came out in the 90s.. afew were taken to court, and all those who at first denied that anything untoward was going on, even still mitigate their actions – it was for the good of the swimming association, club, sport blah blah blah…

5. The laughter of those Gardai was NOT that of a conversation being ‘surreal’ or ‘embarrasing’ – it was because they see their role as state sponsored abusers, as being totally protected, unless they make a ‘mistake’. They follow the rule book, or make it clear that to all appearances they are doing so and they can cover their backsides…. and as long as they don’t spill the beans they’ll be looked after.

6. There’s now more evidence coming forwards of Uniformed Gardai making direct sexualised and abusive comments at Corrib protestors…………

7. Any system of Power NEEDS abusers within it’s employees to retain that Power. It’s naive and foolish to miss that.

8. And those same systems NEED a few good ‘uns to parade from time to time to ensure their cover.

9. The good ‘uns RARELY WHISTLE BLOW. Why do you think that is? or What deters them?

Wait, I get it – it’s not just what you typed to get to this site, right? So maybe it’s picked up on pepper spray because I was looking up details of protests and riots etc?

In any case, surely there’s a way for the site owner to get Google to block certain ads. It seems pretty stupid to have “no to AV” ads on a pro-AV site, and I’ve also seen ads for exploitative-sounding consumer loans firms, which personally I wouldn’t want on my site either.

I think it is important, the imagery that accompanies articles about sexual violence. This is the topic that set off the row online between me and Steven Baxter and friends, from New Statesman.

It would be nice if Libcon distinguished itself from what seems, increasingly to be a boys’ club over at NS, by listening to its women readers and removing an image of a woman that is really annoying to us.